“Who would want to know that on social media?”“Lots, I say, you’d be surprised”

I’ve worked across many B2B setups and still I weep at the budgets aligned for brochure production and advertising as digital waves from afar, looking hungry.

”..but we’ve always advertised there..!” aaaggh.

By far the most consistent blind spot on the horizon no matter what you make, manufacture, market or sell is the perception that very little, if any, content exists that is regularly newsworthy online.

If you have a 50 page printed brochure that has content on every page then you have potentially 30=40 bits of content for the pot. Fair assumption?

Perhaps very technical, very niche but you have things that can be explained and perhaps need explaining. Maybe you have a page on (pick a topic that was passed my way once) - screws, Wood screws to be precise. Yes i have worked on wood screws.

That solitary wood screw was a wood screw. Designed for wood. Not walls. “everyone knows that, i was told” - turns out, lots didn’t.

Screws are not screws

You get where this is going? yes the intricacies of ‘what screw for what material’ were explored. This generated advice for split audiences. Consumers and trade needed a slightly different tone. How about a chart? Maybe a video? Lets pop a link direct to our product. Voila.

This was going to be a single tweet, but I wanted to give it a more solid base. Before we even delve into from Pareto 80/20 rules, ROI, Public Relations ‘measurement’ with accompanying smoke and mirrors. Advertising, Media lists - ABC audited .. (all still hugely relevant - but hang on..)

Social media delivers you an audience that WANT to read/watch what publish, yes there will be exceptions, bots and fake accounts. Your followers have chosen to hear what you want to say. Imagine that.

If I ran a magazine and told you that 300 of our monthly readers directly requested you to publish and article, a “how to” guide, a white paper etc - I reckon you struggle to argue against as to why not to provide.

There remains a distinct gulf between PR agencies who offer digital marketing/social media support and social media/digital agencies who offer PR support. What they both depend on is creativity and ideas. Keep looking for an ‘ideas agency’. The best ideas are platform agnostic.